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North Carolina's Unfinished Transformation (2006)

Report Date: 2006By John Quinterno, Research Associate

North Carolina has undergone a remarkable transformation over the past half century. An overwhelmingly rural state dependent upon agriculture and low-wage manufacturing, gripped by poverty and burdened by segregation has emerged as one of America’s most metropolitan, economically competitive and fastest growing places. People across the globe now benefit from goods and services invented at North Carolina colleges and universities, brought to market by North Carolina entrepreneurs and financed by North Carolina capital.

Wise public investments in North Carolina’s physical infrastructure and people helped transform the state into one of America’s most metropolitan, economically competitive, and fastest growing places. Today, this prosperity stands at risk.